From category archives: In Trust Blog

Students from Africa and East Asia come to study in North America because theological schools in the United States and Canada offer top-quality education. However, immigration and financing systems don’t always prepare these students for the hurdles they inevitably encounter.

Boyung Lee is the first Korean American woman dean at an ATS school. She cites the work of a group called Pacific, Asian, and North American Asian Women in Theology and Ministry (PANAAWTM) as pivotal to her development as a leader. Here she shares her 13-point "Leadership Creed," an embodiment of the lessons she's learned in PANAAWTM.

“To have this opportunity is an answer to prayer and an opportunity to fulfill my calling,” says David. He's pursuing a bachelor of arts in ministry leadership degree offered by Calvin College. He's also an inmate at Richard A. Handlon Correctional Facility in Ionia, Michigan.

The Calvin Prison Initiative offers 20 inmates in the Michigan correctional system the chance to pursue a B.A. while incarcerated. The initiative, which accepted its first class in August, has been positively received by inmates, prison staff, and Calvin faculty alike.

The fact that with each generation, Americans seem less interested in religion has been sort of an assumed given. A recent article in OnFaith points tells us the reality doesn’t quite match up with the accepted narrative. The numbers are dropping among white millennials, but for non-whites, the story is very different...

Those of us in theological education keep a close eye on what other schools in North America are up to. And in seeking solutions to new challenges, we often look among our peer groups for best practices and sparks of innovation. A new publication from the World Council of Churches, however, reminds us that theological education is a global enterprise with many different forms and functions.
The length and density of most academic reference works usually keep them off our recreational reading lists. And the new Handbook of Theological Education in World Christianity -- almost 800 pages long and weighing nearly five pounds! -- is no exception. But the massive tome draws on the perspectives of more than 90 leaders from around the world to detail the varieties of theological education.
There is much for us to learn from this snapshot. For example:
In Latin America, where theological education was once a missionary endeavor from the North, seminaries are now turning to their own communities ...

Here's a stereotype: Studying abroad is for French majors. Or artists. For other students, it's an expensive time-waster, distracting them from their real education.
But where's the data? Well, 10 years ago, officials at the University System of Georgia started a longitudinal study to determine the long-term effects on students of studying abroad. The results, which have recently been released, are remarkable.
Inside Higher Ed reports some of the study's findings:
Graduation rates. Students who had studied abroad graduated a higher rates than the control group (which was carefully selected to match the study-abroad group in several demographic categories and did not consist of merely all students who had not studied overseas). Especially notable: The four-year graduation rate for African American study-abroad students was 31 percent higher than the control group of African American students.
Grades. GPA after studying aboard rose slightly more than the control group's grades. But for study-abroad ...